Investigation Language

Language investigation course book
Contents
Introduction..................................................................................... page 2
Exam board outline.............................................................................page 3
Assessment objectives..........................................................................page 3
Investigation overview.........................................................................page 4
Choosing your investigation...................................................................page 5
Collecting your data............................................................................page 6
Handling spoken data..........................................................................page 7
Creating questionnaires.......................................................................page 8
Finding a focus.................................................................................page 10
Data analysis...................................................................................page 11
Formulating frameworks......................................................................page 14
Structuring your investigation...............................................................page 15
Creating your media text.....................................................................page 17
Skills practice 1: Mills and Boon.............................................................page 18
Skills practice 2: Hairdressers and florist..................................................page 19
Skills practice 3: Kodak advertising.........................................................page 19
Skills practice 4: Facebook and Myspace...................................................page 20
Skills practice 5: Government advisory adverts...........................................page 21
Skills practice 6: collecting spoken data...................................................page 22
Referencing guide.............................................................................page 23
Bibliography....................................................................................page 24
Appendices:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
Student record form......................................................................page 25

Teacher record form.....................................................................page 26
Past investigations........................................................................page 27
Transcript conventions.................................................................. page 31
Example style model for media piece: Crystal on texting.........................page 32
www.teachit.co.uk 2012
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Introduction
During your English Language study so far you will have acquired a broad knowledge of a
range of factors that impact upon our language use. You will also have acquired the
skills to comment upon this language and will be able to using a range of terminology
accurately and effectively.
Over the next few months you will be working towards completing your ENGB4
Investigating Language module. During this time you will be expected to use and
develop your knowledge of the English language to produce an independent investigation
into an area of language that interests you. In addition to this, you will create a media
text that provides an insight into the area that you have been investigating; introducing
and commenting upon this area of language for a non-specialist audience.
This module requires a great deal of independence, organisation and focus. You will be
expected to spend approximately 60 hours completing your final pieces so its important
that you chose a topic that grabs your attention.
You wont be abandoned though. Your teacher(s) will be there to provide guidance and
advice through a combination of whole-class lessons, individual tutorials and informal
chats. You need to keep a record of these meetings and submit this as an appendix in
your final coursework folder (see appendices A and B for the forms to help you do
this).
In addition, this booklet will help to guide you through the whole process from start to
finish. It is designed to be a step-by-step guide to the general approaches that you will
need to employ and will help you to structure your work efficiently and effectively.
Language and
occupation/
power
Language
change
Language and
gender
Language
acquisition
English
Language
Language and
technology
Language and
dialect
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Exam board outline for ENGB4
The aim of this unit
The aim of this coursework unit is to develop your ability to explore and analyse
language data through a variety of methods. It should enable you to build upon the key
concepts and ideas gained during the course of your studies, as well as providing you
with the opportunity to demonstrate expertise in an area of individual interest.
Your coursework file will comprise of two individual pieces of writing:
a language investigation
a media text.
Language investigation
You should choose your own area for study in consultation with your teacher(s). The
topic selected should be manageable given the time and word limits. Investigations may
be based on areas that have been studied during the course so far; or may be based in
any area that is seen to yield interesting questions about language study.
The length of your investigation should be 1750-2500 words, excluding appendices and
data.
Media text
You will use the broad subject focus of your investigation to produce a media text (e.g.
newspaper article, magazine article) highlighting the language ideas and issues
surrounding your chosen topic.
This task will encourage you to develop your editorial writing skills (these have already
been tested in ENGB2). This piece should be based on your knowledge and should be
aimed at a non-specialist audience. This piece needs to be linked to your investigation
but does not need to reflect your findings. You will be able to undertake wider reading
and you should provide a bibliography to identify your preparatory reading material.
The length of this piece should be 750-1000 words.
Assessment objectives
The following objectives are assessed through your completion of your ENGB4
Investigating Language coursework. They are weighted in different proportions.
AO1
AO2
AO3
AO4
Select and apply a range of linguistic methods, to communicate relevant

knowledge using appropriate terminology and coherent, accurate written
expression.
Investigation: 20%
Demonstrate critical understanding of a range of concepts and issues
relating to the construction and analysis of meanings in spoken and written
language, using knowledge of linguistic approaches.
Investigation: 20%
Analyse and evaluate the influence of contextual factors on the production
and reception of spoken language, showing knowledge of the key
constituents of language.
Investigation: 10%
Demonstrate expertise and creativity in the use of English in a range of
contexts informed by linguistic study.
Article: 30%
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Investigation overview: preparatory stages
Choose the area that you will be researching for your investigation
Collect your data. Complete any background reading and undertake any
other research
Refine your title give yourself a clear focus for your investigation
Identify the key frameworks you will use to help you structure your investigation
Investigation overview: analysis and organisation
Carry out a detailed and logical analysis of your data
Draw your ideas together and decide upon your conclusions
Reflect on the validity and effectiveness of your data and methods

you have chosen to explore it
Write up and re-draft your investigation, assemble appendices and present your
final piece
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This is one way in which you can chunk your work. Breaking-down your project will
help to ensure that the major task of creating your investigation is made manageable
and logical. Rather than rigidly adhering to this process you should use it as a series of
guidelines.
Notice how much preparation is required prior to writing your final piece.
Choosing your investigation
Selecting an area for your investigation is a matter of personal choice. This is often the
most daunting part of the whole process, so dont worry if you feel a little overwhelmed
and undecided.
You will need to think carefully about what aspects of your English language study have
so far interested you. This project will take a lot of time (approximately 60 hours of
work) and the more enthusiastic you are about your chosen area of study the better.
Think about what you enjoy doing, what interests you and what you have enjoyed
studying.
You also need to think about practical issues. For example;
Will you be able to collect suitable data?

Will you be able to refine your ideas?
Will you be able to create a focused and interesting title for your investigation?
Do you have a good understanding of this area? Or, will you be able to acquire the
knowledge base needed?
When making your choice, its worth considering the following questions to help you
think of possible areas that may yield an effective project:
Do you have a part time job?

Do you have a hobby?
Do you like to read magazines?
Do you listen to the radio?
Which television programmes do you watch?
Do you watch or play any sports?
Do you belong to any clubs or organisations?
Do any of your friends or family members speak differently to you (accent/dialect)
Do you have younger brothers/sisters? (language acquisition)
Do you have your old primary school exercise books/reports?
Do you know anyone who speaks English as a second language?
What topics interested you the most last year?
Do you enjoy analysing speech or writing?
See Appendix C for a comprehensive list of areas used by students in previous
investigations.
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Collecting your data
Once you have decided upon an area for your investigation, you will need to collect your
data. It is important that your data is carefully and accurately collected; the success of
your investigation depends upon it.
How you collect your data will vary depending upon your chosen area. It may be quite
complicated and can be quite time consuming so make sure you are prepared for this.
You may need to:
record and transcribe spoken data (from audio or screen)

collect a range of written texts
visit local libraries
search the internet
create questionnaires
set up interview scenarios.
Once you have collected your data you should ideally have it electronically stored so
that you can easily make multiple copies. You may need to scan pieces onto the
computer but should always keep the originals as well.
You will need to include in your final project appendices:
a clean (original) copy of your data
an annotated version of your data.
Anomalies
When collecting your data you need to ensure that your collection is consistent and
keeps anomalies and variables to a minimum. You need to think very carefully about
any other contextual factors which may prevent you from accurately comparing data, or
may prevent it from being truly representative.
Ethics
When collecting your data you need to ensure that you have permission to use it in your
investigation; you may need to send letters or emails to do this. You should also ensure
that all your data is ethically collected. For example, you should not record people
speaking without their knowledge.
Any letters/emails that you write should be included in your appendices along with any
responses that you receive.
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Handling spoken data
Some of the most rewarding and interesting projects require students to analyse spoken
texts. Recording and transcribing data can be a time consuming process but is one that
can yield interesting, unique and lively data. See Appendix D for a list of Transcript
Conventions.
Your spoken data may be transcribed from a media source, for example:
It
a television programme
live sports commentary
advertisements
a radio show.
may involve the use of real speech for example:
teacher talk in the classroom
responses to a series of questions where the focus may be dialect
the speech of a child talking to their parents
children retelling a story.
It may involve represented speech:

characters in a soap opera speaking
news readers telling the news
a politician making a speech.
In all the cases you should consider the following:
1) Quantity: It is likely that you will record a lot more data than you will need in the
end and transcribing everything that you record will take hours. So, the first step is
to select which parts of your recordings are most relevant to the question that you
are exploring.
2) Detail: You then need to consider how much detail you will need to include in your
transcript. A transcript should enable the reader to recreate the spoken data in
their head without the need to refer to the original recording.
3) Conventions: There are no absolute rules that dictate how a transcript should be
presented and what it should include. In all probability you will need to show
aspects of speech, through the use of symbols that would not be obvious on the
page. For example; pauses, hedges, intonation. However, what you show will be
very much dependent on the area of language that you are exploring. You may like
to adopt the conventions demonstrated in the Appendix C. In all cases you should
use a key.
4) Phonetic alphabet: Often transcripts will require you demonstrate how something is
said rather than simply what is being said; in many cases you will indicate this using
standard conventions of phonetic spelling e.g. yeah instead of yes. However, for
some areas of exploration, particularly if you are focusing on dialect or acquisition,
you will need a more accurate and rigorous way of showing demonstrating
pronunciation. For this you will use need to use the phonetic alphabet. See
Appendix E.
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The factors that impact upon spoken language
Prosodic
features
Paralinguistic
features
Features of
interaction
Spoken
language
Grammatical
features
The
context
Creating questionnaires
Questionnaires can be a very useful way of collecting a variety of interesting and
relevant data. However, the quality of your data will only be as good as the quality of
your questionnaire so they need plenty of thought and some careful creation. You will
also need to ensure that you can collect enough data to make your findings valid. In the
real world this often means hundreds or thousands of responses; in the world of your
investigation you should aim to look at approximately 50 sets of responses.
This is a brief outline of the process you will need to go through to create a good
questionnaire.
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Objectives
Sampling group
You need to identify the objectives of your survey

This will probably require you to complete background
research and identify theories you would like to test
You will need to identify who will ask to complete your

survey; are you looking at a wide range, small range or
random sample?
Consider: age, gender, interests, context
Creating
Conducting
your
questionnaire
Interpreting
your results
Make sure your questions are clear and obtain

information that is useful to your investigation without
being leading
Consider: wording, layout, anonymity, clarity,
How will you conduct your questionnaire?

Consider: obtaining a range of responses, the personal
information you may need to collect (e.g. gender, age)
How will you collate your results?

Consider how your results would best be presented e.g.
tables, graphs, charts
Is there any statistical analysis that you can perform?
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Finding a focus for your investigation
Once you have collected your data you will need to look at creating a defined question
for your investigation. It is worth remembering that the best approaches are often quite
narrow allowing you to explore an idea in real depth.
The first steps towards this are:
to familiarise yourself with your data and consider its most defining features
to undertake any background reading required, research the area that you will be
investigating.
In light of this you will then need to formulate a title/question to address. In effect you
will be creating an abstract or hypothesis for your investigation. This isnt a
complicated process but it does require some thought and there is no individual model
that will fit every task. At the outset it is worth considering these simple questions in
relation to your chosen area:
what?
how?
why?
You may also like to think about:
when?
where?
who?
Often projects take one of the following forms, or use the following phrases in their
title:
An analysis of
implies close attention to detail
A comparison of
looks at two or more sets of data which have similarity and

difference
A study of
implies wider ranging consideration
An exploration
implies something wide ranging with discovery as an end result
An enquiry into
implies that you have an open question which you will attempt to
answer
Research into
implies that the data collection is in itself important
The language of
implies that the investigation will attempt to define the trends in

language use in one particular area
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Data analysis
In light of your question and focus you will now need to approach your data in depth. To
do this you should undertake some, or all, of the following processes:
analyse and annotate your data in detail

order and organise for data logically
group ideas, comments, quotations and examples appropriately
compare and contrast the data that you have collected
perform a statistical analysis on questionnaires/counted parts
present results in an appropriate manner.
Using diagrams
This may be an English language investigation but there is no reason why you cant
include tables, graphs or pie-charts if you feel that this would be the most appropriate
way to present your data effectively. Take a look at the following examples, these
come from the real investigations of previous students:
Example A
Project title
A study of legalese in the Weekly Law Reports.
Comments
This investigation demonstrated the genuine interest of the student in the law. A
detailed and focused piece, it examined the use of legalese in real depth. The data was
taken from the weekly law reports which are short summaries of influential cases
written by lawyers for their peers and the judiciary. These written texts were taken
from the internet and required the student to obtain permission from the editor of the
reports to reproduce and use these texts in her project. She undertook a great deal of
personal research to help support and explain her findings.
The framework headings chosen
Latin and archaic features

legal terminology and jargon
grammatical structure
how discourse features aid the purpose of the weekly reports
Tradition and purpose vs. plain English campaign.
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11

Report
number
1
Examples of archaic
lexis
So held, thus, monies,
whom, gave rise,
intention of which
Latinate lexis
dicta
So held
Per se, prima facie
In so far as, so held, nor
onus
Whom, so held it
mattered not
Via, inter alia
So held
Per incuriam
So held, thus (x2),

thereafter
So held, thus, behest,
whereby, so as to allow,
in which it was
6
7
Specific occupational
terminology
Defendant, actionable,
statutory rights, tor,
liability
Pecuniary, liable,
legitimate, pursuant, codefendant, recorder
Reserved judgement,
claimant, stop notice,
legislature
Contravention,
defendant
Interlocutory appeal,
appellants, crown,
contraventions
In Re
Pursuant
In personam, in re,
bona fide
Creditor, respondent,
fiduciary duties, trustee,
legislation
Thanks to Krysia for allowing parts of her investigation to be used in this booklet.
Example 2
Project title
An investigation into the language and presentation of Dulux advertising within a colour
guide booklet.
Comments
This investigation was great! Original, lively and focused it handled the subject area
with confidence and explored ideas in real depth. What really made this project stand
out was the fact that the student researched very carefully the language of advertising
and applied broader theories to their data with real sensitivity and intelligence. The
data used comprised of the Dulux colour guide booklet (very easily obtainable from
B&Q), as well as the results of approximately 50 responses to a questionnaire* that the
student designed with a variety of theories in mind. The analysis used a number of
graphs and tables (see examples below) to efficiently illustrate its findings and it drew
some interesting and substantiated conclusions.
*The questionnaire has been used as an example of research methods and can be found
in the appendices of this booklet. This questionnaire was distributed to a variety of
people of both sexes and all ages.
The framework headings chosen
connotations and denotations of paint names

the persuasive techniques used in heading descriptions
lexical techniques within paint names
graphology and discourse structure throughout the colour guide
pragmatics and the cultural significance of paint names and pictures.
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A graph to show the connotations of the paint colour name Red Stallion.
30
25
20
15
Male
10
Female
5
0
A graph to show the number of people who considered the paint colour Red Stallion to
be gender specific.
40
35
30
25
AGraphtoshowthenumberof
peoplewhoconsiderthepaint
colour'RedStallion'genderspecific.
20
15
10
5
0
Masculine
Feminine
Neutral
Thanks to Jade for allowing parts of her investigation to be used in this booklet.
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Formulating frameworks
In order to write the analysis section of your investigation and to ensure that your final
coursework is structured appropriately you will need to define the frameworks you are
applying to your data very carefully. Throughout your course so far you have already
become adept at applying language frameworks to any texts that you encounter. The
difference here will be that you need to select the frameworks that you believe are the
most relevant to your data and your investigation yourself.
These frameworks will vary widely depending upon the area that you are investigating.
Your application of the frameworks should be systematic, exploratory and sensitive. As
a general rule you should choose to focus on four/five key frameworks. These will
enable you to divide your analysis into sections and encourage you to work across texts
rather than in a linear fashion through texts.
Each of your framework choices should be formed as a sub-heading or question. Within
each of these frameworks you will then be required to analyse your data in detail
drawing on your knowledge of linguistic terminology to give accuracy and precision to
your comments. You will also be required to use frequent, specific examples from your
data to support your comments.
The following table shows the over-arching concepts under which you can form more
specific questions.
framework
Discourse
Structure
Graphology
Pragmatics
Syntax
Morphology
Lexis/
semantics
Phonology
Orthography
questions
How is the text arranged, sequenced and organised?
How is the text presented, visually, on the page? What visual
components is it dependent on? How do these help to establish meaning?
What actual and implied meanings do texts have in the particular
contexts in which they are written?
What is distinctive about the sentence structure and word order in a
text?
What is interesting about the structure of individual words in a text?
What is distinctive about the vocabulary used in the text? How does the
text use language to create meanings?
How are the meanings and connotations produced in a text? What is
interesting about the sounds involved in a text?
How is the text written (typeface/hand-writing etc.), spelt and
punctuated?
In your project you should aim to demonstrate your understanding of a range of

different approaches to language. For instance, there is little mileage in your whole
analysis concentrating on graphological features. However, two of your frameworks may
fall under one of the broad headings named in the table above.
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Structuring your investigation
Your final investigation should be clearly structured in the following way. It should
include the following sections in this order.
The title page
Very straightforward, you simply have to let us know who you are and what your
investigation is about so check that it includes the following information:
title of your investigation

your full name
module name and code (AQA A2 English Language; Unit 4 Investigating Language;
ENGB4)
candidate number
centre number
school name.
Contents page
As with your title page, this simply gives clarity to your work so ensure that it fulfils
these criteria:
provides a clear outline of the structure of your investigation

lists the content of your appendices.
Introduction
The introduction is an opportunity for you to outline your reasons for selecting your task
and provides the chance to give a little background information to help contextualise
your ideas and approaches. You should include:
your reasons for choosing this focus for your investigation

your hypothesis/research question
how your topic fits into a wider context for language use
how your research relates to some theoretical aspects of language, including
reference to what you have read on these aspects
Your aims and objectives.
Methodology
In this section you should outline how you have collected your data and how you went
about ensuring that your data collection was not open to anomalies. You should include:
the methodology that you have chosen for your data selection
problems (if any) that you encountered during the process of collecting your data
techniques that you used to ensure that your data was valid.
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Analysis
This section will use the majority of your word count. In most cases your analysis should
be clearly divided into manageable sections, with clear sub-headings. In some cases
writing the analysis as one essay can prove more effective; if you think this is going to
be case make sure that you plan your ideas carefully and maintain a clear structure in
your work. Either way your analysis should:
demonstrate a clear exploration and analysis of your data

use appropriate linguistic terminology and concepts
demonstrate a critical understanding of the relevant ideas and theories surrounding
the topic area
demonstrate an analytical understanding of the key contextual influences upon the
data.
be clear and logical in its structure.
Conclusion
Your conclusion should draw together the key ideas that you have identified and explain
you major findings. It will include your interpretation of your data.
Evaluation
You should evaluate how successful you feel your project has been and identify any
areas that you feel you could have improved. This section can be incorporated into your
conclusion if you prefer.
Bibliography
Include a list of all the texts that you have used, including internet sites. Make sure
these are correctly referenced. For guidance see the bibliography/reading list at the
back of this booklet.
Appendices
Any material that you would like to reference. This should include your data.
Media text
In the same file as you investigation, you should include your media text and any style
models that you have annotated to help you complete this piece.
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Creating your media text
The second section of your coursework requires you to create a media text. Your media
text could be one of the following:
a newspaper article for a specific publication
a magazine article
a website entry.
You should link your article to the area of focus that you have chosen for your
investigation and should write approximately 750-1000 words. Whilst the area that your
article discusses should be linked to your investigation you dont need to include your
investigations findings in your article; in fact you could explore the same rough area
from a completely different angle.
This task builds on the skills that you will have acquired during your ENGB2 Creating
Texts coursework. You will use your knowledge of a particular area of language, and
your editorial skills, to create a text which (primarily) informs a non-specialist
audience about a specific language issue.
You will need to consider the following when creating your media text:
audience
purpose
context
graphology
lexical choice
discourse structure
pragmatics.
Style models
Media texts which discuss language are wide ranging and you will find plenty of
examples on the internet. You should find at least two articles that can act as style
modes for the type of text that you are aiming to produce; you should look at articles
that do not cover the same area of language as you will be writing about. These texts
should be annotated and included in the appendices of your coursework. Pay close
attention to the stylistic features of your style models and consider how you can achieve
similar effects in your own writing.
Useful websites:
www.guardian.co.uk
www.timesonline.co.uk
www.independent.co.uk
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Skills practice 1: The language of Mills and Boon book titles
(adapted from Researching Language 2nd Edition by Angela Goddard)
Data set
Below are a list of titles from Mills and Boon novels:
Rage
Fever
The Caged Tiger
Desire
Snow Bride
With All My Worldly Goods
Lord of the Land
Midnight Lover
Dear Villian
Burning Obsession
Night of Possession
Kiss of a Tyrant
Summer in France
Greek Island Magic
A Modern Girl
Dangerous Demon
A Girl Bewitched
Sweet Conquest
Secret Fire
Dark Tyrant
Loving in the Lions Den
Dangerous Moonlight
Untamed
Wildfire Encounter
The Fires of Heaven

King of the Culla
Bridal Path
Always the Boss
The Girl from Nowhere
Makebelieve Marriage
Pacific Aphrodite
Savage Surrender
Dangerous Compulsion
Dear Demon
Task 1
Make notes on the following:
Can you find any patterns in the data?
Try to categorise the titles according to their meanings. This means you should
attempt to link several titles together in groups via their connotations since they are
trying to create similar pictures.
Consider if there are any common language or grammatical patterns in the data.
Task 2
Create your own headings for the categories that you have found. Aim to create three
or four headings.
Task 3
Answer the following question:
What do these titles tell you about the world of Mills and Boon books?
Research
If it helps you may like to undertake some research about Mills and Boon. You could
concentrate on the following ideas:
the intended audience and purpose of the books
the context and background of the books.
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Skills practice 2: The language of hairdressing shop names
Or
The language of florist shops
Task 1
Create a data set by searching the internet for names of either hair dressers or florists
shops. You should aim to obtain a list of approximately 20 names. A good place to start
is www.yell.com.
Task 2
Can you find any patterns in the data?
Try to categorise the names according to their meanings. This means you should
attempt to link several titles together in groups via their connotations since they are
trying to create similar pictures.
Consider if there are any common language patterns in the data.
Task 3
Create your own headings for the categories that you have found. Aim to create three
of four headings.
Task 4
Answer one of the following questions:
What do the various connotations and structures of the shop names tell you about
hairdressers shops?
Or
What do the various connotations and structures of shop names tell you about florists
shops?
Skills practice 3: Language change in advertising
Research
Search the internet to find between five and ten print advertisements for one of the
following companies:
Kodak
Coca-cola
Levis
Your adverts should span at least 50 years.

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Task 1
Look carefully at the advertisements. Create a title for an investigation that uses these
adverts as its data.
Task 2
Annotate the texts identifying their key features, consider:
lexical choice
pragmatics
graphology
discourse structure
audience and purpose
contextual issues.
Text 3
Create a list of four framework headings that would provide structure for an
investigation that uses this data set.
Skills practice 4: Social networking sites, Facebook and MySpace
Investigation title:
An investigation into the defining features of the language of social networking sites.
Comments:
This was a very successful project with a modern and youthful context, firmly based in
the ever changing field of language and technology. It concentrated on defining the
language and features of social networking sites and exploring whether common
structures exist between sites. The investigations overall aim was to create a list of
identifiable and common features (if these existed).
Task 1:
Write a short introduction that outlines the aims and intentions of this investigation.
You should also introduce the subject matter and provide any relevant background
information.
Task 2:
Outline how you would go about collecting data for this investigation. You should
consider:
where your data will be collected from

how many examples you will need
permission and privacy considerations
how you will present your data.
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Task 3:
Outline the reading and research you feel you would need to complete in order to
complete this investigation. For this investigation, the following frameworks were used
during the analysis:
the lexical choice of users
the psycho-social issues connected to the creation of an online identity
features of graphology and persuasion
language varieties connected to purpose and audience
personalisation and individuality.
Task 4:
Look carefully at the frameworks chosen. Is there anything you would change, alter or
approach in a different way? Give reasons.
Task 5:
Collect some data that you think would be effective for this investigation, annotate and
present this correctly.
Task 6:
Select one framework. Plan and write this section of the analysis. You should aim to
write approximately 200-250 words.
Task 7:
Try to create a list of any key features of the language of social networking that you can
identify from the limited data that you have.
Thank you to Lewis for allowing parts of his investigation to b used in this booklet.
Skills practice 5: The language of government advisory advertising.
Task 1
Create a data set by searching the internet for examples of government advisory
adverts. You could choose one area, or many, to focus on. Areas you could consider
include:
advice on smoking/alcohol
advice on road safety for students, cyclists, car users
advice on public health issues e.g. swine flu, MRSA, inoculations etc.
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Task 2
can you find any patterns or systems in the data?
try to categorise the adverts according to their semantic content
consider if there are any common grammatical patterns in the data
consider how else these texts may be linked.
Task 3
Write a title for an investigation which uses this data.
Task 4
Create your own headings for approximately four frameworks that that you feel should
be used to aid your analysis of these texts.
Skills practice 6: collecting and transcribing spoken data
In order to practise collecting and transcribing spoken data try these quick tasks.
Task 1
Ask a friend, or one of your family, to answer the following simple questions:
What did you do today?

What are your plans for the weekend?
Ask any other questions which arise from the discussion and answer any questions you
are asked.
As you are asking these questions, record the conversation (you can use a Dictaphone,
digital recorder, or the record function on your mobile phone).
Now, depending on the length of your recording, select a section to transcribe. In as
much detail as possible create a transcript of the recording. You will find that you need
to stop and start the recording frequently and listen to the recording repeatedly in order
to ensure that you include as much detail as possible. You should ensure that you are
consistent with you notation and that you focus on all key elements of the spoken data.
Task 2
Select a programme from the television, record the programme, or use iplayer.
Transcribe a short section from this programme in has much detail as possible.
Good programmes to try are:
soap operas
dramas
reality television
the big brother diary room.
(See Appendix D for an outline of some common transcription conventions for

conversational analysis).
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Referencing guide
In your investigation you will need to include a list of all the books, articles, TV/ Radio
programs, journals, emails and web-sites that you have referred to. Ideally you should
use the Harvard style of referencing; this is the most commonly-used style of
referencing worldwide. These examples conform to the British Standard, but you may
see slight differences elsewhere.
You should include a full bibliography - listing all the sources of information you have
consulted in your research; this list should also be arranged alphabetically.
Below is a list of the most commonly used reference forms:
Email
FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). Year. Title. [online]. Message to: Recipient. Date sent. [Date
accessed]. Personal communication.
Book
Take the information from the title page and the reverse of the title page:
FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). Year. Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
Book (edited)
Write ed. or eds. after the editor's name(s):
FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). ed. Year. Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
Newspaper article
FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). Year. Title of article. Newspaper title. Date, page number of
your quotation.
Image (online)
ORIGINATOR. Year. Title of image [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from World Wide
Web: URL.
Television advertisement
COMPANY/PRODUCT. Year produced. Description of advert (duration). Television
advertisement, channel. Screened dates.
Television broadcast
Series title and number and title of episode. Year. Transmitting organisation and
channel. Date. Time of transmission.
Website with author
FAMILY NAME, INITIAL(S). Year. Title [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from World
Wide Web: URL.
Website with no author
Title of website.Year as appearing on site [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from
World Wide Web: URL.
Wikis
WIKI NAME. Year. Title of article [online]. [Date accessed]. Available from World Wide
Web: URL.
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Bibliography
Moore, Andrew. 2005. Andrew Moores Resource Site. [Accessed 25th March 2009].
Available from World Wide Web: <www.teachit.co.uk/armoore>
Norman, Ron and Watkiss, Anne.2001. English Language for AQA B. Oxford. Heinemann
Goddard, Angela
Fromkin, Rodman and Hymans.2007.An Introduction to Language: Eighth Edition.
Boston.Thomson/Wadworth
Publications from the University of Leeds Website; University Library pages 2009
[online]. [Accessed 30th March 2003] .Available from World Wide Web:
<http://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/200201/training/218/references_and_citations_explain
ed>
WIKIPEDIA. 2007. International Phonetic Alphabet [online]. [Accessed 26 March 2009].
Available from World Wide Web:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_phonetic_alphabet>
Crystal, David. 2008. 2b or not 2b: David Crystal on why texting is good for language.
The Guardian. Saturday 5th July 2008. p. 2 of Features and Reviews. Available from
World Wide Web:
<www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jul/05/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview1>
Beadle, Philip. Mind your Language- and know what it means. The Guardian. Tuesday
16th May 2006. p. 6 of Education Guardian. Available from World Wide Web:
<www.guardian.co.uk/education/2006/may/16/schools.uk1>
Eastman Kodak. 1900. Eastman Kodak Brownie. [Accessed March 30th 2009]. Available
from World Wide Web. www.antiquephotoparlour.com/photohistory.php 1900
Eastman Kodak.1907. Vintage Kodak Girl. [Accessed March 30th 2009]. Available from
World Wide Web: www.thephotographyfanatic.com
Eastman Kodak. 1895. Vintage Kodak. [Accessed March 30th 2009]. Available World Wide
Web: www.thephotographyfanatic.com
Eastman Kodak.1932. Vintage Kodak Poster Advert. [Accessed March 30th 2009].
Available World Wide Web: www.twenga.co.uk
Eastman Kodak. 1907. Vintage Kodak Poster Advert [Accessed 30th March 2009].
Available World Wide Web: www.twenga.co.uk
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Appendix A: student record sheet
Name:
Date:
Focus of meeting/preparation:
Targets/notes:
Teacher signature:
Student signature:
Name:
Date:
Focus of meeting/preparation:
Targets/notes:
Teacher signature:
Student signature:
You will have frequent meetings with your teachers about your investigation. Use
these record sheets to keep track of your progress, any questions/problems that you
encounter and any advice or targets you are given. These sheets must be kept and
submitted with your final investigation.
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Appendix B: teacher record sheet
Name:
Class:
Investigation title and focus:
Date
Focus
Comments
Use this sheet to keep track of students investigations, the advice and guidance you
provide and their progress.
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Appendix C
Past investigations
Below is a list of areas that have proved successful for past investigations. You can use
these to provide you with ideas for your own investigation.
This list is far from exhaustive; the possibilities are endless, so think very carefully
about what interests you.
1. Language change e.g. recipes, magazines, childrens books.
2. Comparison of language in news programmes R4, Newsbeat, local radio,
Newsround, BBC Six OClock News.
3. Interview techniques e.g. Paxman, Parkinson, Jonathan Ross.
4. The language of investigative journalism (TV).
5. Study of transcribed examples of regional varieties of spoken English accent and
dialect.
6. A study of how parents talk to their children e.g. when reading bedtime stories.
7. Analysis of a stretch of everyday discourse e.g. Big Brother, sales talk, greetings,
gossip, occupational variations (politicians, lawyers, detectives, doctors, hairdressers
the list is endless).
8. Comedy styles stand-up, sitcom, taboo. How an individual comedian creates
comedy e.g. Billy Connolly, Eddie Izzard, Harry Hill.
9. Analysis of differences between spoken and written English e.g. radio v. press, news
or sports reports.
10. Observations of young children learning to speak read or write.
11. Exploration of stylistic features of media forms e.g. magazines, TV programmes and
websites. Look at how language is related to the audience.
12. Do common linguistic definitions of gendered language match ordinary peoples
perceptions?
13. The Language of toys for boys/girls in catalogues (Barbie vs. Action Man etc.)
14. The Language of nursery/playground rhymes, lonely hearts columns, match.com,
car/food/cosmetics adverts, comics, political speeches, childrens books, fly-on-thewall documentaries, Big Brother diary room, childrens books, tele-sales, chat-rooms,
birthday cards etc.
15. The language of war-related texts from 1939-1945.
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16. Teacher talk. Record a teacher working with their students. Examine power
features employed.
17. Gender issues. Record a male group and female group discussing the same
topic/stimulus. Compare the differences.
18. Taboo language. Record two different age/social/gender groups and compare their
use of taboo language. Is it becoming more prevalent? More acceptable?
19. Occupational lexis. Record a person at work, or within any social group (e.g.:
doctors/solicitors/mechanics/football fans) where specialised language might be
used. Examine the functions of their jargon. How and why is it used?
20. Child language acquisition. Record children talking as they perform a task e.g. Lego
building. Read them stories and ask them to re-tell it in writing, or on tape, compare
via age.
21. The lexis of sports commentators. Record and transcribe a few commentaries.
Compare extracts of at least three different speakers to investigate if there is a
recognisable genre.
22. The language of football managers in pre and post match interviews.
23. Language change in advertising e.g. Coca-Cola, Kodak, Levis.
24. Technology based. The language of social networking sites, blogs, text messaging
etc.
25. The prevalence of Black English vernacular in popular culture. Why is it fast
becoming the most popular variety of English for teenagers today? Examine in terms
of a few selected texts.
26. To what extent is there an increasing influence of Americanisms on the English
Language? Examine in terms of three selected media texts e.g.:
newspapers/magazines/music/radio and TV scripts.
27. Gender stereotyping in childrens literature. Select three extracts from texts from
perhaps the 1940s/1950s (like Enid Blytons The Famous Five or Arthur Ransoms
Swallows and Amazons) and examine for gender bias.
28. Gender stereotyping in any type of text you would like to examine. This could be
tabloid newspapers, lifestyle/sport/car/fashion/music magazines. Analyse in terms
of the target audiences and shared cultural assumptions. A good one to do might be
superhero or fantasy-type comics, where stereotypes are often employed.
29. Focus on the representation of an individual at a particular point in time e.g. Barack
Obama, David Beckham.
30. Change in tabloid and broadsheet papers as the war in Afghanistan develops.
31. The changing language of fashion advertising.
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32. Representation of sportswomen in journalism.
33. Gossip in the work place in soap operas.
34. Recreational magazines aimed at teenage girls in the last 40 years.
35. Influence of other children on the development of children's language.
36. Representation of women in a range of national newspapers.
37. Celebrity chefs: a study of the language of recipes.
38. A study of the language of press releases.
39. Newspaper accounts of England/Germany football matches over 40 years.
40. The language of American and English guitar magazines.
41. Development of children's writing, looking at writers over a number of years.
42. Conversation in real life and Eastenders.
43. TV and radio football commentaries.
44. Child language development, looking at one child over 3-4 months.
45. Representation of terrorism and terrorists in a range of newspapers.
46. Representation of 'war against terrorism' in newspapers for minority groups.
47. Media representation of certain celebrities.
48. Representation of occupation in . (Scrubs, Holby City, CSI, Waterloo Road etc.)
49. Language and power in reality TV shows (who gains the power and how).
50. Comparison of the speeches made by Saddam Hussain and George Bush following the
invasion of Iraq.
51. The language of crime scene programming.
52. The language of Jeremy Kyle/Trisha/Ricki Lake etc.
53. Investigating the language of propaganda-driven war posters (comparing English,
German and Russian from WW1).
54. The language of car sales people.
55. The language of air-traffic controllers.
56. The language of driving instructors.
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57. Comparing teacher language in Y13 lessons to that in Year 7 lessons.
58. Persuasive techniques in film trailers.
59. The language of L33T speak/world of warcraft/MUDs/VGEs.
60. A comparison between the language used to name paint colours and lipstick colours.
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Appendix D: transcript conventions for conversational analysis
Symbol
[
]
(1)
,
(.)
word
WORD
!
?
:
.
(...)
<>
h
W(h)ord
( )
Meaning
Point at which an overlap in
speech starts
Point at which an utterance stops
Timed space in the utterance
Indicates natural pause in
utterance
Indicates short pause (less than a
second
Indicates emphasis
Indicates shouting
Shifts in pitch higher or lower
What it shows?
Sequence
Emphatic utterance
Rising intonation (may be a
question but not always)
Sound prior to mark prolonged
(the more colons the longer::::::
the sound)
Prior sound cut off e.g. whFall in tone (not always the end of
a sentence
Fading away which is unintelligible
Indicates utterance speeding up
Indicates an in-breath (more hhhs
the more pronounced it is)
Indicates out-breath (more hhhs
the more pronounced it is)
Indicates breathlessness (laughing,
crying etc.)
laughter
crying
Unable to hear what was said
(wordword) Unsure whether word or phrase is

what was said (best guess)
(( ))
Descriptions added by the
transcribers not what was said
(may include paralinguistic
features or notes on prosody)
Timing
Features of speech
Transcribers doubts and

comments
Please note:
You should always provide a key to explain the conventions that you have used in
your transcripts; you can include this as an appendix with your data.
These are symbols that are commonly used, but you can use your own symbols to
draw attention to any features you would like to highlight. Just add them to your
key.
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Appendix E: style model for media text: Crystal on texting
2b or not 2b?
Despite doom-laden prophecies, texting has not been the disaster for language many
feared, argues linguistics Professor David Crystal. On the contrary, it improves children's
writing and spelling
David Crystal
The Guardian, 5th July 2008
Vandalism? Teenager texting on a mobile phone. Photograph: Martin Godwin

Last year, in a newspaper article headed I h8 txt msgs: How texting is wrecking our
language, John Humphrys argued that texters are vandals who are doing to our
language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbours 800 years ago. They are destroying it:
pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must
be stopped.
As a new variety of language, texting has been condemned as textese, slanguage, a
digital virus. According to John Sutherland of University College London, writing in this
paper in 2002, it is bleak, bald, sad shorthand. Drab shrinktalk ... Linguistically it's all
pig's ear ... it masks dyslexia, poor spelling and mental laziness. Texting is penmanship
for illiterates.
For the full article please see:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jul/05/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview
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Language investigation course book

Student record form......................................................................page 25

Language investigation course book

Language investigation course book

Select and apply a range of linguistic methods, to communicate relevant

Language investigation course book

Investigation overview: analysis and organisation

Carry out a detailed and logical analysis of your data

Draw your ideas together and decide upon your conclusions

Reflect on the validity and effectiveness of your data and methods

Language investigation course book

Will you be able to collect suitable data?

Do you have a part time job?

Language investigation course book

record and transcribe spoken data (from audio or screen)

Language investigation course book

It may involve represented speech:

Language investigation course book

Language investigation course book

You need to identify the objectives of your survey

You will need to identify who will ask to complete your

Make sure your questions are clear and obtain

How will you conduct your questionnaire?

How will you collate your results?

Language investigation course book

implies close attention to detail

looks at two or more sets of data which have similarity and

implies wider ranging consideration

implies something wide ranging with discovery as an end result

implies that the data collection is in itself important

implies that the investigation will attempt to define the trends in

Language investigation course book

analyse and annotate your data in detail

Latin and archaic features

Language investigation course book

Per se, prima facie

In so far as, so held, nor

Via, inter alia

So held, thus (x2),

connotations and denotations of paint names

Language investigation course book

Language investigation course book

In your project you should aim to demonstrate your understanding of a range of

Language investigation course book

title of your investigation

provides a clear outline of the structure of your investigation

your reasons for choosing this focus for your investigation

Language investigation course book

demonstrate a clear exploration and analysis of your data

Language investigation course book

Language investigation course book

The Fires of Heaven

Language investigation course book

Your adverts should span at least 50 years.

Language investigation course book

where your data will be collected from

Language investigation course book

Language investigation course book

What did you do today?

(See Appendix D for an outline of some common transcription conventions for

Language investigation course book

Language investigation course book

Language investigation course book

Language investigation course book